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Wednesday, 30 October 2013

So a few weekends ago we went to Leeds to celebrate the baby blessing of my adorable new nephew (more to come on that in another blog post). Aren't his eyebrows the most adorable thing you've ever seen?! How I love this cute pie!!

We did what the Jones family do best when we get together...and we ate alot! We headed over to the Kirkstall Abbey Farmers Market which I was delighted about because I do love a good farmer's market, and this was a really good one! with lots of super tasty stalls in a very picturesque setting.

I was super excited to come across this Nanaimo Bar lady. As many of you may know Nanaimo Bars are a Canadian speciality..hailing from the town of Nanaimo on Vancouver Island that I was lucky enough to visit during our time spent over there! Traditional Nanaimo Bars consist of a chocolate biscuit, coconut and nut crumb layer, covered in a layer of custard and topped with chocolate. However, whilst I was living in Vancouver I got to try a few other varieties like mint, coconut and raspberry...but these were usually few and far between with the traditional Nanaimo Bar being featured most prominently. So when I saw the Nananimo Lady and all her variations she was offering I was spoilt for choice! We picked up a traditional, peanut butter and oreo flavour bar to sample and they were seriously delish! Like better than any Nanaimo Bar we'd ever eaten in Canada!!

So...as I pondered what to bake up for our Canadian Thanksgiving feast at the beginning of the month, I knew I'd have to pay homage to the Nanaimo Bar but give it a Nanaimo Bar lady twist! and my Oreo Overload Nanaimo Bar was born!

I decided, like always, to go all out so there were crushed Oreos in the biscuit base, crushed Oreos in the vanilla pudding layer (which you can use as an alternative to custard) and crushed Oreos in the chocolate layer too!
Byron declared these the best Nanaimo Bars he'd ever tasted, and it made being away from Canada this year that little bit easier to drown our sorrows with the sugary goodness of our dessert!

Yes...it is hard being back, really hard. Look at what we were doing last thanksgiving weekend - hiking to beautiful beautiful Garibaldi Provincial Park...

Eating our thanksgiving feast with awesome friends (rather than on our lonesome this time around!)

and biking the sea wall around Stanley Park and enjoying the amazing colours of fall!

It's a struggle to experience life after Vancouver! but hopefully one day in the not so distant future we will be back in that beautiful city!
For now, I'll bake Nanaimo Bars and pretend I'm still there...ignorance is bliss :)

Sunday, 20 October 2013

A few weeks ago we had the American missionaries from our church over for dinner. As well as cooking them up some Enchiladas (since Americans always complain about the lack of Mexican in this country) I also wanted to bake them something to remind them of home.

I knew it had to involve peanut butter, and cream pies always scream America to me so I remembered a peanut butter pie recipe I had come across ages ago. When trying to find it again, I came across this version which seemed even better to me because it involved an Oreo crust AND Nutella!!

So it's pretty much all my favourite ingredients in a pie!

Everything tastes better with an Oreo crust...it's a fact! Recently, I've even been baking up magic bars using Oreo crusts since sadly I no longer have easy access to graham crackers now we're back on this side of the pond!

Next time I would probably even spread a more generous amount of Nutella on the bottom of the pie because I'm so obsessed with the stuff! The filling is the creamiest dreamiest stuff you can imagine, due to the cream cheese and the condensed milk inside it, and I like to top mine off with some straight up cream as well just to balance out all the sweetness.

It is the pie that dreams are made of! Bake one up today, you and your dinner guests will not be disappointed!

Crush the Oreos in a food processor until you have fine crumbs. Stir in the melted butter until combined and press the mixture in the bottom of your tart tin and up the sides if desired.

In a heatproof bowl, warm the Nutella in the microwave in 30 second intervals until runny. Pour it over the bottom of the cookie crust and spread it out to the edges using the back of a spoon. Place the crust in the fridge to chill.

Pour the double cream into the stand mixer bowl and whisk until stiff peaks form. Store in the fridge until ready to use. Place the cream cheese and peanut butter in the mixing bowl and beat on medium speed until light and fluffy. Reduce speed to low and gradually beat in the icing sugar. Add the condensed milk, vanilla extract and lemon juice. Increase speed to medium and beat until everything is combined and the filling is smooth. Using a large spatula, stir 1/3 of the whipped cream from the fridge into the filling mixture.

Slice the banana thinly and arrange the slices on top of the Nutella crust. Pour the peanut butter filling over the banana slices. Smooth out with a spatula. Spoon the remaining cream on top of the filling. Warm the Nutella 'til it melts in the microwave and drizzle over the top of the pie. If you want to be super neat use a piping bag, if your piping bag supply has run out like mine had just flick it using a knife (I sort of liked the rustic look of this way!) Crumble up Flake and sprinkle it over the top.